Science Inches Closer to Understanding Death

We don't know what happens after death, but we're closer to understanding what happens during it

Hiya!

As a younger child, I was terrified of death. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I became possessed with fears of our house burning while we slept. For a while, my bedtime ritual included making sure the stove was off every night, and all candles were blown out. Then, I’d fall asleep reciting my fire escape route and prioritizing what to take with me after saving my sister.

Depressing, I know. But don’t worry, I grew out of it. In fact, I overcame my fear of death completely thanks to a car-ride chat with my dad when I was around nine years old. My grandpa had just passed away — my first experience with loss — and while explaining the situation, I naturally asked, “what happens when we die?”

Thus began a series of “what-if” possibilities that stuck with me to this day. This conversation changed my perspective of death from something to fear to a curious mystery and ultimate adventure. Scientifically, we still have a ways to go before knowing anything for sure, but we are beginning to shine a light on the enigma of death.

Near-Death Experiences

Until recently, near-death experiences (NDE) were lumped together with hallucinations, drug use experiences, and illusions since people report seeing, hearing, or feeling things outside our shared reality. But now, for the first time, scientists have declared that NDEs are different than hallucinations and deserve to be studied further.

After an unintended scientific discovery about the brain after death, teams of scientists from universities across the US and UK worked together to analyze large amounts of accumulated scientific evidence about NDEs. The end result is the first-ever peer-reviewed consensus about NDEs published in the journal Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences.

In an interview with the Independent, the lead researcher, Sam Parnia, from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, explained:

“What has enabled the scientific study of death is that brain cells do not become irreversibly damaged within minutes of oxygen deprivation when the heart stops. Instead, they ‘die’ over hours of time. This is allowing scientists to objectively study the physiological and mental events that occur in relation to death.”

In other words, advances in stem cell research offered resuscitation and neuroscientists insight into what happens to the brain when we die. Before, experts thought brain cells die within minutes after the heart stops from a lack of oxygen. But actually, the process can take hours, even days, after the heart stops beating.